Kharijites (Arabic: literally "those who went out"; singular, Khārijī ) is a general term embracing various Muslims who, while initially supporting the authority of the final Rashidun Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law and cousin of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, then later rejected his leadership.

They first emerge in the late seventh century, concentrated in today's southern Iraq, and are distinct from Sunni Muslims and Shiʿa Muslims.

With the passing of time the Kharijite groups fall greatly in their numbers and their beliefs do not continue to gain traction in future generations.From their essentially political position, the Kharijites develop extreme doctrines that further set them apart from both mainstream Sunni and Shiʿa Muslims.

The Kharijites are particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to Takfir, whereby they declare other Muslims to be unbelievers and therefore deem them worthy of death.

The Kharijites are also known historically as the Shurāh (not to be confused with shūrā), literally meaning "the buyers" and understood within the context of Islamic scripture and philosophy to mean "those who have traded the mortal life (al-Dunya) for the other life [with God] (al-Aakhirah)", which, unlike the term Kharijite, is one that many Kharijites use to describe themselves.The differences between the Sunni, Shiʿa, and the Kharijites are the following: Sunni Muslims accept Ali as the fourth rightly guided Caliph, and also accept the three Caliphs before him, who were elected by their community.

Shi'a Muslims believe that the imaamate (leadership) was the right of Ali, and the rule of the first three Rashidun caliphs (Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Umar bin al-Khattab, and Uthman ibn Affan) was unlawful.

Kharijites insist that any Muslim can be a leader of the Muslim community and has the right to revolt against any ruler who deviates from their interpretation of Islam.One of the early Kharijite groups is the Harūriyya; it is notable for many reasons, among which was its ruling on the permissibility of women Imāms and that a Harūrī, Abd-al-Rahman ibn Muljam, was the assassin of Caliph Alī.